This invention relates to a vehicle bumper, and an ornamental sheath (fascia) for concealing the bumper.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,580,109, issued to M. Birka et al on Dec. 3, 1996, shows an ornamental fascia (or sheath) for concealing a vehicle bumper beam. The sheath is secured to the vehicle bumper beam by an internal sheath support mechanism that runs along the bumper beam front surface. The sheath front edge abuts the rear end surface of the vehicle body so that the sheath conceals the bumper beam from view.
In some vehicles the rear bumper beam is supported by two parallel bars that extend forwardly from the bumper beam into longitudinal rails on the underside of the vehicle body. These rails slope upwardly in the front-to-rear direction.
Van type vehicles are sometimes built to have different wheel base dimensions, e.g. a short wheel base version and a long wheel base version. The upwardly sloped nature of the longitudinal rails causes the rear bumper beam height to vary slightly from one vehicle model to the other vehicle model. The bumper beam height for the long wheel base model will be slightly higher that the bumper beam height for the short wheel base model.
This variation in bumper beam height effectively prevents the ornamental sheath assembly of U.S. Pat. No. 5,580,109 from usage on van type vehicle models having two or more wheel base dimensions, In the sheath assembly of U.S. Pat. No. 5,580,109 the sheath (fascia) is rigidly joined to the bumper beam so that the sheath assembly would be slightly higher on the long wheel base version, and slightly lower on the short wheel base version. It is not possible for a given sheath assembly to have proper alignment with the vehicle body on both wheel base versions. Therefore, the sheath assembly of U.S. Pat. No. 5,580,109 cannot be used with the described vehicle body styles.
The present invention relates to a mechanism that can be used on a range of vehicle styles, wherein the bumper beam height varies from one vehicle body style to another style. In preferred practice of the invention the sheath (fascia) is carried on a concealed sheath support member that is fastened to the rear end surface of the vehicle body (instead of the bumper beam). The sheath and sheath support member have an interior clearance relative to the bumper beam, so that the bumper beam height can vary (from one vehicle wheel base to another wheel base) without adversely affecting the relationship between the sheath and the vehicle body. The sheath has proper alignment with the vehicle body, even though the bumper beam height is higher for the long wheel base vehicle, and lower for the short wheel base vehicle.
Specific features of the invention will be apparent from the attached drawings and description of an illustrative embodiment of the invention.